Fate of the Nobodies
by Indigo Rosebud
Summary: Three months after Xemnas' defeat, strange things start happening. Now, Sora and his friends are being pulled into a plot that will determine the fate of the reborn Organization XIII, and the fate of all those turned into Nobodies.
1. Light in Six

A/N: So, I'm trying something a little different this time. This is going to be one of those epic Post-KH2 type fics. I know, I'm sorry, but the plotbunny was eating my brain. I'm still going to continue my humor fics, but I'm in a writer's block for the funny right now. This fic is going to be centered around the Organization XIII, ducks rotten fruit although most main KH characters have pretty big parts. And yes, I'm going to need to use a couple OCs ducks again. I'm trying really hard to not make them Sues/Stus, but I still am pretty new at this, so any help would be nice!

I own nothing of Kingdom Hearts and never will, unless you count the actual copy of all three games, the video game manuals for the first two, and a kickass necklace I just got for my birthday. But I doubt that counts, really.

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Chapter I: Light in Six

"Get up! Hey! Kid, get up!" Auron sighed as he pounded on the door with his one good hand. Life- well, the afterlife in his case- was being rather easy on him, but things did go out of hand. And right now one of those things was his roommate. It was an interesting story how the two of them first met.

After the whole ordeal with Hades had been settled, Hercules and his friends let Auron have a small house situated about a half-hour's walk from the stadium. He accepted, although the guardian was planning on traveling the worlds his first chance, it would be nice to have a place he could come back to and call home. Only a few days later, he had a visitor.

It was a man in a black cloak. Auron had heard of them but had never seen one, a member of Organization XIII. The cloaked man was carrying some one else, another man- or was he young enough to be a boy? The cloaked man's cargo was fast asleep, but Auron was able to register his basic features. He had dark blue, shoulder-length hair, and his clothes were way too small for him. His age could be anywhere from 18 to 23, but Auron would guess on the younger end. Auron took out his sword and prepared to strike, but the Organization member didn't look like he was going to attack, so he waited. Finally, the cloaked man spoke.

"Auron, is it? I've heard a lot about you."

Auron replied with an annoyed grunt. "Get on with it! What is it you want?"

"Heh, you're a sharp one. I heard that you call yourself a Guardian. Well, here's a guy who needs some guarding."

"So… why come to me? This world's right next to the dominion of the dead. You really think that's a safe place to put some one? Besides, what makes you think I'm going to accept?"

"You're trying to find the pages to your story, right? Think it'll be easier to do when you're an active Guardian? And don't worry about the dead people. I chose this world cause I thought it'd be safest for him. So, are you gonna do me a favor and take this guy?"

Auron paused for a few moments, deep in thought. Then- "Fine, I'll guard him for you. Just don't try pulling any funny business with me or you'll be sorry."

"Pleasure doing business with you!" The cloaked man handed off his sleeping burden to Auron. "I'll try to stop by again, but I might not get the chance. Take good care of him now! Oh! And we've been calling him LiS. Good luck." With that, the strange visitor disappeared in some kind of vortex of darkness.

That was the last time anyone from another world had been to the Stadium or its surrounding areas. That had been several months ago. It was now almost exactly three months after Xemnas' defeat.

LiS was never much trouble for Auron, the only time he really needed guarding was when he was helping to rebuild the Coliseum and a loose rock almost fell on his head (Auron had seen the danger and threw his sword at the rock, knocking it safely away). The only worrying thing had started a couple months ago. Approximately once every couple of days, without warning, LiS would seemingly be possessed by a different person. His expression would change and he would walk around aimlessly, often bumping into walls or people, and talk about random things no one in Athens understood. They often included addressing random objects as numbers, and telling whoever would listen about some vague requests or summonings from a "Superior." LiS never remembered anything he said or did while in one of his trances, and no one had heard of something like that happening before. Auron eventually decided that he would take these occurrences in stride and make sure LiS did nothing to hurt himself. When the chance to travel to another world came, Auron would try to find out more about the matter. Right now, he had more pressing concerns. Such as the fact that it was past ten in the morning and the door to LiS's room was still locked.

"LiS! It's Auron. Now. Open. The. Door!"

"Um, you need to move out of the way first." LiS was out of his room, fully dressed, and currently standing behind Auron.

"You're up already? I checked your room at nine. You would have had to get up before that. Don't think you've done that before."

LiS shrugged. "I had a lot on my mind this morning. Kinda like a strange omen or something?"

"And you didn't feel the need to wake up your bodyguard?"

"Nah, I didn't think it was anything too important."

Auron sighed. Honestly, this felt familiar, Having to watch over a naïve kid who kept on putting himself in danger. "Anything's important with what's been happening lately. Just because you don't remember acting like some one else, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be worried."

"I know, I know, but it's just like I go to sleep in one place and wake up somewhere else. Not much of a catastrophe from what I see." LiS sat down on a small chair, absentmindedly tearing apart a small blade of grass. Auron was about to speak up when there was a knock at the door. The two of them rushed to answer. Auron grinning as he got there first. He opened it to a timid villager.

"Um, excuse me, Auron?"

"Yes? Spit it out."

"There is a young woman here, she says she's from another world. I.. I thought you might be interested in talking to her. She just stopped by the village on her way to the stadium."

"Right, we're on it. Let's go LiS!"

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"Aww, not again!" Axel shook his head as he strode into Xigbar's room. Sure enough, the older member had fallen asleep atop a stack of old books and documents. It was strange, Axel knew that Xigbar's Other was a scientist but he had never before been such a research nut. Not since the Organization had reawakened.

Knowing that their mission might end in death, Xemnas had Vexen try and devise a way to return their souls to their bodies in case the worst happened. The Chilly Academic was successful, but the device was not perfect. When an Organization member died, it was able to hold onto the member's soul and keep it from fading away. Xemnas' soul was the trigger, when it went into the machine a signal went out that caused it to put the Organization's souls back in their bodies. Or something. Axel was never good with machines or technical things, manipulating people's emotions and desires was more his expertise. Anyway, that machine had saved them once, and from what he heard Xemnas wasn't so sure it could do it again.

"So, what do we have here?" Axel casually slipped out a piece of paper from under Xigbar's inert arm. A series of notes were scribbled on it. Judging from the smudges Xigbar was working on it right when he conked out. Well, Axel had intruded his superior's personal space this much already, he might as well read the darn thing.

"Let's see, it's just a series of random lines. 'The closer you get to the light, the stronger your shadow becomes'? 'Toll for the door is Light in Six hearts, acceptable replacements?' 'Light and Darkness, two sides of the same coin, alike but different'? 'Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion, Reversal from darkness to light'? 'Recovering hearts from the darkness, using a relic from the realm of light, case file Sora'? 'Bodily possession, case file Xehanort-Riku, powers transferred to Xemnas?' 'The original code of the Order, reasons for succession?' What's all this supposed to mean?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Xigbar's smirking face was inches away from Axel's. The Freeshooter had woken up and decided to give the redhead a good scare. It worked.

"Gaah! Wha- I I wasn't reading your stuff! I mean, uh, your mom! Um…"

"Cut the crap Number Eight. So you've found my research? What are you planning on doing with it? You gonna bring it to the Superior? Or do you want to find out more?"

Axel grinned. "You should know by now how much I hate over-the-top displays of authority. What do you think I'm gonna do?"

--End Chapter I


	2. Otherworldly Visitors

A/N: Glad to see there were a couple of people who liked the first installment. I know I have a bad habit of making fanfics REALLY confusing, so I promise to try and be good this time! ducks rotten fruit So, yeah, this chapter is focusing on Auron and LiS again, but I'm planning on bringing in the Organization and the Destiny Island trio really soon, next one or two chapters probably. Thank you all for your patience!

Disclaimer: Indi owns nothing of this fic except for her own characters and the Launch-Rotten-Fruit-At-The-Author-O-Matic. (Go ahead and use it if I get too cliché, I'm pretty thick-skinned.)

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"Right this way Auron!" The Athenian walked along the village's paths as he lead Auron and LiS to the town's central square. The first thing Auron noticed was the Gummi Ship. It was medium sized and mainly adorned with bricks of black, white, and red. There was a circle of villagers around the ship and it's pilot, a young woman dressed in black with long, dark brown hair. She turned to the two of them and smiled warmly.

"Hello! You must be the two men that everyone was saying I should meet here. My name's Tifa Lockheart. It's Auron right, and LiS?"

"That's true Miss Lockheart!" LiS spoke up, "How may we help you?"

"Oh, just call me Tifa. I heard that a close friend of mine stayed here a while ago. He's been acting odd, so I came by to find out more about the time he spent here. His name's Cloud, carries a big sword, has spikey blond hair?"

"Nope." Auron shook his head. "But I've heard about him from some other guys who live here. I'll take you to them if you want."

"That would be great, thank you."

The three of them walked together towards the stadium. Auron stayed quiet as LiS and Tifa chatted. LiS was more open and cheery than usual; Auron attributed it to the fact that this was the first time he could really talk to some one his own age.

"So, where are you from Miss Tifa?"

"Please, just Tifa. I'm from a world called Radiant Garden, although it was known as Hollow Bastion until just a little while ago. What about you?"

"I… I don't know. I've lived here for a few months, and before that, darkness."

"Everyone's got problems with darkness these days it seems."

LiS chuckled. "From what I hear you're right."

"So, what about Auron? Where's he from?"

"Oh, him? He's my zombie bodyguard!"

"Beg pardon?"

"Hang on, I'll explain it." Auron sighed, the kid definitely wasn't gifted with words. "You know how the Underworld is near here? Well I was just a ghost lost inside of it once, until a naïve kid with a Keyblade came by and helped set me free. Now I'm trying to fill in the holes left in my story. One thing I do know is that I was called a Guardian. Some guy came here a while ago, brought LiS with him, and said that the guy needed some guarding. If I knew what a dork he was then I would have turned them down, but there you have it."

"I understand. Well, I think I do.."

"Hey! If you haven't called us crazy by this point then you understand better than anyone else we've talked to."

"I guess, where I come from, a lot of stranger things have happened. Still, I've never met a dead guy before. I'm glad I decided to travel then. I mean, I mainly went to help out my friend Cloud, but it's great to see new places and learn about things I would have never known about otherwise."

Auron chuckled. "Yeah, I can understand why you wanted to travel. I guess now would be the best time to tell you. I want to go with you. There's still a lot I don't know about myself when I was alive, and I think I've found out everything I can in this world. I need to leave in order to fill in the rest of my story, and you're the first way out that I've found in months."

"And your friend?"

"LiS'll be coming with me. I promised I would protect him, and no self-respecting guardian goes back on a promise like that."

"Really?" LiS stumbled but steadied himself. "You want to take me with you? I.. I thought you'd just leave me here and I'd be living alone. I mean, it's not like I really need a bodyguard."

"But you'd want to go? Or would you rather stay here?"

"No! I'd love to travel!"

Tifa smiled. "Well, I'll definitely take you guys on the ship with me back home, I don't see any reason why not to. But I can't promise you anything once we get there."

Auron replied. "That'd be fine, maybe some one there knows a bit more about LiS and where he came from. Here, there's the stadium."

"Ok, thanks so much!" Tifa smiled as she stepped through the doors. "You guys don't have to come with me, I don't want to bore you."

"Oh, I'm sure it won't be boring at all! Don't wor-mrph!" LiS struggled as Auron clamped a hand firmly over his mouth. Tifa giggled before finally leaving the boys.

"What was that for Auron?"

"You idiot, this is obviously private business. She wouldn't want us in there."

"And how would you know?"

"Just trust me." Auron sighed. LiS grumbled seating himself on a piece of the old stadium. Repairs of the damage from the Hydra's attack were going quickly, but there was still work that needed to be done. "Honestly, if we do go to other worlds then you'll have to learn some more manners. I'm not getting kicked out anywhere thanks to you being stupid."

"Yeah? Well you- hey! What's that?" LiS pointed to something about thirty feet away. It looked like a spontaneously generated pool of darkness.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it can be good. Approach it with caution."

"Right…" LiS slowly crept up to the strange artifact, which expanded into a dark archway tall enough for a person to fit through. A girl stumbled out; she was careening around widely like she was about to lose her balance and fall over.

"Hang on!" LiS grabbed the girl's right hand and steadied her. She looked up at him and smiled gratefully. Auron took note of her. She had short, messy dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a black bodysuit with a white tank top, white shorts, and tan boots. She was far from being a beauty, although she wasn't hideously ugly. "Are you ok, you aren't going to fall over now are you?"

"Oh!" She blushed and looked around, a little surprised at her surroundings. "No, I'm ok, thank you very much kind sir."

"Hey, it was nothing. Is there anything else I can do for you?" Auron smiled in spite of himself, LiS was pretty good with getting people to like him.

"Well, um, I'm supposed to be looking for a one-eyed swordsman dressed in red. Any idea where he could be?"

"Right behind you?" The girl turned and saw Auron.

"Yes! That's probably him!"

"And what did you want with me?" Auron raised a puzzled eyebrow. Maybe he would get some pages to his story sooner than he thought. The girl cleared her throat as to make an announcement.

"Ahem, 'The closer you get to the light, the stronger your shadow becomes. Don't let it overtake you.'" There was an awkward silence.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I dunno, I'm just supposed to memorize it. Also, I need to find the one-eyed swordsman wearing red and stick with him. Um, I guess it sounds kinda stupid now. Sorry about that…"

"You, stick with me? You've got to be kidding." This wasn't what Auron wanted, another kid he had to baby sit.

"I'm sorry, I'm not."

"Ok!" Tifa was striding out of the stadium's doors, waving goodbye to Hercules and Meg. "I've got the information I need, now- who's that?"

"We were wondering the same thing ourselves."

The girl shook nervously. "Um, I'm Nobody really. It's kinda a long-ish story."

"Hey, don't worry!" LiS grinned. "We'll find some time for you to tell it!"


	3. Journey Between Worlds

A/N: Well, I finally got off my butt and started writing again. As usual, I'm trying to make this fic neither too cliché nor too confusing. Any advice to stop me from veering too far off the path would be welcomed and loved. Don't worry, next chapter will include a LOT of explanations.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Kingdom Hearts. Hell, I don't even own enough wittiness to make my own disclaimer semi-funny.

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"So, we're going to this Radiant Garden place, right?" LiS asked as he loaded the last duffel of his and Auron's possessions into Tifa's gummi ship.

"Yup, I'm only going to stay there for a bit though."

"Where are you going after that?"

"A place called Destiny Islands."

LiS raised an eyebrow. He had heard of the place from Auron, who had heard about it from Sora, but he couldn't see why Tifa would want to go there. "Why would you need to go there? I thought your issues were with this world."

"Well, it's a little complicated." LiS looked on eagerly at her, so she continued. "But explaining it to you couldn't hurt. Apparently, to find out what happened to my friend, I'm going to need to talk to this guy called Hades. But I won't be able to go to him unless I have a specific artifact from this place called the 'Olympus Stone.' Right now, Sora has the Olympus Stone, and he's in the Destiny Islands. Fortunately, the guys inside the stadium said that he'd probably be more than happy to lend it to me. I just need to let my friends at Radiant Garden know where I'm going. What about you? Are you planning on staying in the Garden?"

LiS shrugged. "I dunno, I'm just gonna stick with Auron. Although I want to learn more about Organization XIII. They're the ones who brought me here apparently."

Tifa smiled. "Best of luck to you then. I wish I could help, but haven't met any of the Organization. I've only heard about them from my friends at the Garden, so you'd be better off asking them when we get there."

"Hey!" Auron was leaning against the Gummi ship as he called over to LiS and Tifa. "We can't leave if you won't stop talking. Which one of you is going to get the new girl?"

"Can you get her LiS?" Tifa asked as she swung herself into the pilot seat. "I need to get things started here."

"Right, I'm on it!" LiS jogged the few yards to where the younger girl sat. She was holding onto an unadorned white staff, the only item besides her clothes she had on her after she fell through the portal. She was staring off into space with what looked like a forlorn expression. She had offered to help load the Gummi ship, but Auron clearly stated that he didn't want some one he just met touching his stuff. That shouldn't make her depressed, would it?

"Um, hey! We're going to leave in a couple minutes. The others told me to come get you. Are you ok?"

"Oh!" She turned around in surprise and almost fell over. "Yes, I'm fine, don't worry about it. Everyone says I look sad when I'm just thinking about something."

"You sure?"

"Yup!"

"Hmmm…" LiS looked at her like he didn't completely believe her story. "Well, anyway, we should get going. C'mon."

The girl nodded and followed right behind LiS. It made the blue-haired man somewhat uneasy, like this girl was almost too conditioned to follow orders. "Hey! You haven't told us your name yet! We can't keep on calling you 'you' or 'that girl over there' the entire time."

"Right, I'm sorry."

"Sorry? That's a sad little name. But it does fit you in a way. Not that it's an insult or anything! I mean, uh, Sorry can be a pretty name if you wear it the right way."

"LiS you idiot…" Auron was close enough to hear what was being said.

"Um, that's not what I meant." The girl cut in. "I'm called Inyxia."

"Right! Gotcha! That name's actually better than "Sorry" if you ask me. So, let's go on in! I've never been on a ship before, have you?"

Inyxia shook her head. "No, this'll be my first time too." She climbed into the Gummi ship and sat down in the seat farthest from any controls. Tifa sat in the pilot's seat, LiS sat near a window, and Auron took the chair next to LiS. The blue-haired young man was grinning widely as they took off and got to see the stadium from the air. He turned to look at Inyxia, to see if she was enjoying it, but she was already fast asleep.

"Um, Auron?" LiS nervously shook his guardian's shoulder.

"What is it?" Auron was actually having fun. It was his first time experiencing anything like this, but his pride wouldn't let him show his enjoyment.

"Inyxia- that's the new girl's name, she's asleep. You think there's something wrong with her?"

"LiS, I thought there was something wrong with her as soon as she dropped in. We don't know where she's from or who she works for, so we can't trust her. As for falling asleep, she probably did something tiring before going to the stadium. I wouldn't concern yourself with it."

"Ok." LiS shrugged and looked back out the window. "Tifa, do you know how much longer it'll take?"

"Only a few more minutes. These engines are pretty powerful. See, you can see the castle from here. Hold on! You should enjoy this."

LiS gulped and gripped onto his chair's armrests. "What are you doing?"

"Just a couple tricks Cid showed me. It's your first Gummi ride, right? Better make it memorable."

"But… but… the new girl's asleep! And I'm not so sure if Auron wants to go through with this…"

"LiS, I'm fine, you shouldn't be so jumpy. And I think the kid'll be fine, she's in her seatbelt after all."

"Ok! Here we go!" Tifa grinned and gunned the engines. The ship took a sharp turn and did a couple barrel rolls. Then she straightened the ship and flew in an upside-down loop.

"Wha- GAAAAH! NOT COOL, NOT COOL! PUT ME DOWNDOWNDOWNDOWN!"

Unfortunately, Inyxia had woken up at a rather inconvenient time.

"Sorry about that! Hang on, we'll get down in a sec. Just look outside for this last part if you aren't afraid. It's really pretty!"

LiS stared out his window again and was greeted by hundreds of light blue crystals surrounding a town that was crowned by a castle. As they dipped lower to the ground, they passed through a narrow archway that barely fit their ship. There was some sort of courtyard on the other side. It was only about thirty feet in diameter, but the entire thing was covered by a single blue tile engraved with the emblem of a four leaved clover…

He had seen that courtyard before in his dreams. But there had always been a door there too.

Coming here had turned out to be a pretty good idea after all.

"Hey! Tifa! Nice landing!" Yuffie was waiting by the landing pad. "We got this letter while you were gone, you should check it out. Who're your friends?"

"This is LiS, Auron, and Inyxia." Tifa pointed to each one in turn. "To make a long story short, they wanted a ride here and I had the room. Do you think it would be ok with Leon if they stayed at the Garden for a bit?"

"I think it'll be fine. C'mon, we've got loads of stuff to talk about. Bring the new people too!" Yuffie motioned for the group to follow her as she jogged to Merlin's house.

"Ok, not cool, can't do that again…" Inyxia was the last member in the group to leave the room. She was still shaking from her earlier shock. And then, there was the fact that this was _that_ place. Of all the worlds, why did they go here?

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